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September 30tb, 1901 



A MEMORIAL ADDRESS 

ON 

HON. WILLIAM MCKINLEY 

BEFORE THE 

MASONIC VETERANS 

IN THE fi^y^-^" -^ 

MASONIC TEMPLE 






Sixth Avenue and Twenty-third Street. N. Y. 



By VENERABE BROTHER JOHN SHRADY, M. D. 






SKFTKMHER 30th, igoi: 



But there are deeds, whicli shall not pass away, 
And names that must not wither, though the earth 
Fors^ets her empire with a just decay. 

— Byron. 



p. 

A^- 1th of, 

fFer:oiO. 

20 C '02 



t-- 



A MEMORIAL ADDRESS 



ON 



HON. WILLIAM MCKINLEY 

BEFORE THE 

MASONIC VETERANS 

IN THE 

MASONIC TEMPLE 

Sixth Avenue and Twenty-third Street, N. Y. 

By VENERABE BROTHER JOHN SHRADY, M. D. 

SblP'FEMBIiK 30th, igoi. 



But there are deeds, which shall not pass away, 
And names that must not wither, though the eartli 
Forgets her empire with a just decay. 

— Byron. 



'jjT 3.30 P. M., September 19th, 1901, there was an inter- 
ni ment in a town distant from the center of population in 
a great republic. There was a simultaneous hush of traffic 
tnroughout the civilized world— bells tolled, standards drooped, 
sheafs of wheat were mingled with the sombre black and the 
royal purple,— there were garlands, cannon booms, dirges, 
moans, sobs and " the mist of unshed tears." There were 
emblems of martyrdom and glory, of love and triumph, of death 
and the proffered crown. An impressive scene in a great 
metropolis to which had come deep under the sea messages of 
sympathy from empires, kingdoms, sovereignties and clanships 
powerful somewhere in our outer world. How like Angelus in 
the field pausing at vespers ! What a wealth of woe ! Amen 1 
and Amen 1 for a death meant to be sudden but made sublime I 
What a change from acclaims to intercessions, from shouts to 
requiems, from a '* Hail Columbia" to the " March in Saul." 
from the paeans of waiting crowds to troublous visions in the 
breaking dawn ! What now of that message of glad tidings ! 
In that mournful pageant, slow pacing throughout a 
continent can we ever forget the presence of the plain people 



with their communings in secret, those humble toilers dependant 
upon their hopes for glimpses of a life where sorrow can never 
come? Nay, can we forget in the midst of that multitude the 
lesson of the most primitive philosophies that there can be no 
mountain top without the vale? Yet. all this religion of anti- 
thesis man caught from the wild woods before his interpreta- 
tions of power began, before the morn of his idolatries, before 
history was formulated and long before his race had begun to 
convert by extermination. Was not the Chief Magistrate of 
our land one. of the plain people whom Lincoln so loved for 
their humble worth and scorn of pomp? It was not through 
them that his being soared out upon the wings of the coming day. 
Happy indeed were they that no allegations were written against 
them so proud of their fervid loyalty. 

On that memorable afternoon v/ere not all men re- 
hearsing the story of a life in the hushed companionship of a 
calamity while putting their shoulders together that they might 
show their mute sympathies more and more in unison. The 
chorus of gloom might have been too softly sung for it was an 
awakening " from a deep dream of peace " and eyes had not 
yet seen the angel "writing in a book of gold." Nay more, the 
pulse of life was still while men stood uncovered and thus 
exalted the American nation in human history. What a re 
hearsal of virtues and what a consensus of affection while awe- 
struck souls were peering into the Beyond ! But words yield 
but scant justice. 



William McKinley, aged 58 years. An inscription which in 
itself is a text. It recalls a life beginning with nursery rhymes 
and the primer and merging into Bunyan's Pilgrim and the 
Holy Bible. It suggests the jocund boy loving work, for the 
sake of a widov/ed mother's comfort. Then come his holidays 
of achievement in the public schools crowned by a lofty patriot- 
ism, and then a running commentary on his worth as a soldier 
without vengeance or hate ; an enemy of disintegration in every 
guise, regarding every phase of society as a trust and breathing 
to the full the spirit of our progressive life ; a volunteer rather 
than a professional, offering the vigor of his growing manhood 
to his well-loved country and acquitting himself a most genial 
hero, as magnanimous to a foe as to a most cherished friend. 
Later we may study him as a lawyer recognizing his profession 
as for the common good and not as a device to terrorize but 
to persuade men. Again we may hail him as a guide for his 
people " in the ways they knew not," with no quiet but in 
activity, often with an ear to the ground that he might learn the 
direction of their march. Well indeed did he know the imperial 
West with its pioneers, rejoicing In their hard-won homes — the 
bleak North with its hardihood, stern but purifying and with a 
yearning for the perfect day — the philosophic East, wrestling 
with its logic and exemplifying its steady, reflective courage, 
while still later-on, our spirits were aglow with his experience of 
the sunny South which brought memories of hearty cheer and 
an over flowing hospitality. How serene the moonlight of our 
dream ! 

5 



Verily, McKinley v/as a born statesman, with courtesy 
as his most dangerous weapon, and a rare exemplar of chivalry — 
one whose strategy was not casuistry or deception but the 
exactitude of the accountant, or rather might he not be better 
described as one whose diplomacy was not a mere babble of 
words but an earnest struggle for right. As all will concede it 
was a habit of his temperament to ponder well upon the available 
means as in the case of the Spanish-American War in which 
the delays were before and not after the battle. In that brief 
ordeal Our President's tender humanity accentuated the 
" Golden Rule " with almost a new meaning. How well did he 
confront the future without breaking with the past ! How 
ardent were his convictions of the doctrine of life, liberty and 
the pursuit of happiness. These dreams of peace indeed with 
him had their uses. Well was it said not so long ago, that 
" the hope of the world almost stifled had been renewed by an 
unexpected apparition ! " What happiness then was ours as 
we trimmed from our holidays all miemories of evil portent ! 
How brightly then gleamed our faith that futile torpedoes were 
for dauntless seamen ! How then our most blessed thoughts 
were of prestige, of the open door of our best ambitions and 
better yet of the promise of the typical manhood of the coming 
future when "peace and harmony" in the coming days would 
reign no longer only at random but for evermore. 

It has been told how by a visit to a general hospital of 
the Civil War he was led to admire masonry. The story is 



brief. There were confederate prisoners and union soldiers 
haphazard in rows of cots. " How is it " said McKinley, "that 
there are no distinctions, that all are treated alike ? " They 
are brother Masons " was the rejoinder. " May I be one ? " 
said the visitor, whose name has pervaded the earth and is yet 
making mankind akin, not by perishable idols but in the 
name of the Supreme ruler of the universe. This our 
brother who honored us by his affiliation in the bonds sanctified 
by willing oaths of fealty, ever remembered us. We claim 
him also as our own, yea, next to the widow rocking in grief ; 
we claim him in our best memories and shall ever regard him 
as a paragon for imitation. 

Snug within our heart of hearts we shall keep him. in 
common with the world not for his greatness but for his worth. 
Even without his masonry, to us he was " free and accepted," 
for we yearn to know that the good Lord placed him upon a 
pinnacle that the lengthened ray might the better reach us and 
that distance might lend enchantment. Could any career have 
had a higher sanctification ? 

Yes, my venerable brethren, we were proud to claim 
this man as an associate, not through pride of one who trusted 
in phrases rather than actions, but for the heroic example of an 
unsullied, and therefore, immortal name. We do not claim to 
pre-empt virtures but to copy them. We arrogate to ourselves 
no patent of nobility, we but humbly thank the great Creator for 
such a full rounded being as that of our countryman, our friend. 



and now our departed brother. We content ourselves with the 
cheer of possibilities and hope to strive yet a little longer for the 
same conscience void of offense. Let us not forget that the 
small things of this world may confound the mighty. Let us 
not forget that man by strife may rise above his environments 
or that the eagle may soar above his, eyrie only to enjoy a soli- 
tude. There yet abide to us perhaps too indifferent loiterers 
all the joys of companionship and the assurance that in the 
recent words of a divine we may be enriched more by what we 
put into the world, than by what we take out of it. Can we ever 
over-admire symmetry of character in a republic of virtues ? 

Lest we forget amid the impressive sadness, let us hold 
up in prayer the hands of that other brother upon whom the 
mantel of responsibility has fallen, let us avoid the unseemly 
abuse, let us " render to Cassar the things that are Cassar's," 
and let us be well reminded by the forewarning of David, the 
Singer of Israel, lest " they part my garments among them and 
cast lots upon my vesture." 

Nay, my brethren, do we not also enjoy blessings re- 
gardless of their cost, nay, more, do not all protest against a 
division even of their own heritages ? How many even at this 
very moment are regretting the omitted obeisance and are 
denying that they ever warred against the poor handful of dust 
mouldering before them ! While we regard life as not a 
tragedy but as a privilege let us avoid such pangs so that we 
may be '• Nearer My God to Thee." Let us search the nooks 
and corners of our hearts. 

8 



*' God moves in a mysterious way" begins the hymn 
and our gifted brother has left us, with his faith unshadov/ed. 
his hope triumphant and his charity abiding to the end — with 
his piety unchallenged and himself even while lingering in the 
river almost without scorn of the serpent that crawled into 
his Eden and left one who quivered only by her lips. How the 
prayers and obligations of this model pair were ever in unison ! 
But through the murky shadows of their pathway along the 
shore at last came the whispered text of " Lead Kindly Light" 
and echoes sadly whispered, oh 1 such words of comfort with 
bated breath ! Let us draw together the curtain and hide our 
eyes from the tender parting. But what for the author of the 
vivid horror whose highest resolve was to glorify the execu- 
tioneer by the enormity of the crime. Let us never by word 
or deed stain with blood our own hands even under the 
direst provocation. We never met on that level nor can we 
part upon such a hypothecated square. Let us not pelt with 
unseemly epithets, for words are elastic and may rebound ; nor 
let us so sin that our pride must conquer repentance. Let our 
own dead rest, for this blest martyr's life was his God's, his 
country's and truth's, with an immortality gained beyond the 
stormy banks of Jordan. He is bearing the palm of the faith- 
ful servant in repute for the work well done and his crown is a 
nation's gratitude. Like him whom we now mourn, let us 
guard well against even the trivial sin. let us ever work after 
his models, for then in our deaths there can be no ignominy or 
execration. 



VKCiti^ OF .1. QBANT SKNI> 



VKrtT laSTH ST. 



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